Caged No More: Side Stories
by Shrapnel893
Summary: The cruel world is full of tales, both dark and light. After a choice with no regrets, new positions are formed, squads reorganized, and humanity's strongest soldiers secured. During the Fall, humanity makes the decision to abandon itself, and from a time before 3DMG existed, the first Titan-Shifters rise from the depths of the Void amidst the slaughter.
1. Table of Contents

**Stories**

**1. Tattered Wings**

A year before Maria's fall at the hands of the Colossal and Armored Titans, three dwellers of the underground are admitted into the Scouting Legion. After months of training to prepare for a new formation that was sure to reduce the Scouting Legion's casualties tremendously, two of the three perish in the ensuing expedition beyond the Walls. In the aftermath, the sole survivor of this trio is forced to put his faith in the hands of the one they were hired to kill.

**2. The Survivors**

Immediately after the breaching of Wall Maria, turmoil runs a muck as space becomes limited, food shortages go on the rise, and an ultimatum is given: all able bodied refugees who fled Maria's destruction are to set out immediately to reclaim that which was lost. In this time, the new Commander of the Scouting Legion commissions two special squads, each led by his two strongest subordinates. They are to each pick four members, and who they chose may decide the outcome of humanity's struggle against the Titans in the years that follow.

**3. Hope within Isolation**

Sixty years before Maria's fall, dark secrets and haunting truths come to the surface as the foundations of peace are finally broken. An infant is found crying in the bloody bile of a Titan's remains, a blacksmith has come up with a way for humanity to fight effectively against the Titans, and the one weakness of the Titans is revealed. In the middle of all this are a band of reckless fools who are determined to bring the fight to the Titans, or die trying.

**4. Mother Never Been**

A village on the outskirts of the Walls vanishes without a trace of where its people had gone, leaving a small child as the only survivor. Only, an ancient power has its sights set on using this girl for its own odds and ends, waiting for the time to arise from the depths to destroy humanity once and for all. That is, if all goes according to its wish, but even darkness can taste the bitter sting of betrayal.


	2. Tattered Wings

**Tattered Wings**

"Squad Leader Erwin, it's just as you said..."

Walking along the remains of the battlefield, Ines rested her eyes on the dismembered remains of that man's two companions. The one with the sandy-brown hair and business-like demeanor, only his upper body had been fully recovered; cleanly cut through by the jaws of the Titan that killed him. Of the girl, nothing below the neck remained. Her head was lying on its side, eyes closed.

Without a moment more, she moved to the short, squint-eyed man who had his blade poised at the Squad Leader's throat. The rage clouding his vision consumed the sorrow in his heart, and he looked to be questioning the Squad Leader about the blank documents lying at his feet, soaked in rainwater. The documents that Lovoff had tried to obtain through them. His effort to erase the evidence of embezzlement of the Survey Corps' expeditionary funds. The blank documents had been a part of the Squad Leader's bluff, Ines having gave the real ones to the Supreme Commander himself as per his orders.

Squad Leader Erwin's hope had been to secure two positive outcomes for the Scouting Legion via one gamble... and it looked like all of that was to come to pass. The man who had his blade to the Squad Leader's throat, Levi, lowered it. He had chosen to submit, rather than to defy. With him included into their ranks, perhaps the survival rate would go up by a one percent margin—and a one percent margin meant the difference between being devoured and going home.

She looked down at his two companions for a second time, thinking that one percent was just what the Squad Leader had calculated as the right amount needed. Though, would it not have been better to have a three percent increase rather than just the one? The two of them had been well-versed in handling the Maneuvering Gear, teamwork hadn't been a problem for them, and, perhaps, in time, they could've proven themselves more than just sewer rats.

Now it was too late—they'd suffered the fate of being washed away, down the deep dark pipes of death. Her gaze traveled back to Levi, the pain of their deaths still visible on his face, yet no longer clouding his vision. Having heard the Squad Leader's words of saving humanity from its fate at the hands of the Titans, he'd decided to throw in his lot with the rest of them in the Scouting Legion. She wondered, then, if it was for humanity's sake or his own.

So his eyes wouldn't wander to the two at her feet. Lying there.

Next to him was a fellow squadmember, Mike Zacharius. Besides herself, Mike was one of the Squad Leader's most trusted subordinates. Well within reason, as he was one of the calmest soldiers she'd ever had the opportunity to fight alongside. His loyalty and soft-spoken nature were an added plus, as one could never be too careful as to who they let sleep beside them at night. This Levi, on the other hand, he was someone she'd immediately disliked upon apprehending. While he did appear calm and collected most of the time, the look behind his eyes wasn't one of loyalty or soft-spokenness, but of distrustful recklessness. If it'd been her holding his head in that puddle of watery filth back then instead of Mike, she'd have held him under till he drowned.

Instead, she had to chase after the loud-mouthed brat and drag her kicking and screaming to the Squad Leader. The loud-mouthed brat who's head was now the only thing left of her arrogant and clingy personality. Yet, despite her nature, she'd felt the girl would've become a much better asset than the one she clung to, if only she hadn't been severed from it forever. The other man, as well. While he was just as distrusting as his leader, at least he had the sense to know when to give in.

Not that any of it mattered anymore.

Though, if the Squad Leader ordered her to fight alongside this man in the near future, she'd have one blade aimed at the nape of his neck along with the Titans'. As she thought this, the Squad Leader strode over to her atop his horse. She noticed that his hand was bloodied, having stopped that man's blade with his palm, showing himself to be unafraid of idle threats. That, even if the intent to kill had been real, he wouldn't die no matter what. No until his goals were secure and he could be certain that, even after he'd meet his end, they'd be carried out in his will.

"Ines, we're regrouping with Commander Shardis and the main detachment, secure any supplies not water-ridden that you can carry."

"Yes, sir." She took one final look at the two at her feet before moving on to find something worth salvaging from the carnage. Her search took her to the Squad Leader assigned to watch over the three of them; his remains inside the Titan that killed him. One of the five Titans that Levi had managed to dispatch by himself in his blind rage at his two companions' deaths. The flare rounds he was carrying were still usable, and she collected them without hesitance.

Flagon had always been somewhat of an idiot, barking in situations when he should've sat down like the dog he was and stayed quiet. That subordinate of his, as well—Sayram—making outbursts without regard for those he shouted at; both of them had been more of a nuisance than anything else. Their own disregard was probably what'd gotten them killed. But, if there was one thing she'd been grateful for about the two of them, it was the still usable flares each of them had been extra paranoid to keep doubly wrapped in cloth inside their packs. At the least, they'd known how to prepare for potential technicalities that may arise on any given expedition outside the Walls.

She looked around for either of their horses, or those of Levi's two companions, but couldn't find them. The only explanation were all of them had run away, and were now aimlessly wandering around in the fog. There was no time to look for them, so thus she saddled her own horse and reported back to the Squad Leader of her findings.

"Very well. Fall in behind Levi and make sure he's keeping up with Mike and I. If he were to suddenly change his mind, then all of these deaths would be for naught."

"And if he does, sir?"

"He won't." The look in his eyes when he said this, so sure in his belief of the man's obedience that she almost couldn't help but want to believe it too, if only hope were something she actually believed in. Instead, she went behind the man with every intention of running him down if he so much as slowed to contemplate. There was no time for sentimental regrets.

Watching him now—head dipping toward his hands, hands loosely holding the reins of his horse, horse keeping pace with the Squad Leader—she almost thought there wouldn't be a need to monitor him, until his horse started to slow and his head raised, looking back at the remains of the battlefield where his two companions lay. Where the two fools she'd taken the flares from rested. But, as she was about to chide him to get a move on, he simply turned his head back the front and sped up, once again keeping pace with the Squad Leader.

Right then, a black signal flare soared, telling the formation of an approaching Deviant Titan, the most unpredictable type. Ines observed as Levi gave it one look, then paid no further attention. She keep one eye on the multiple green signal flares that rose up in response, the first having come from the center of the formation, where they were heading. Commander Shardis was maneuvering them away from the Deviant's path, veering the formation further took the liberty of shooting off one in the same direction. The noise was deadened by the rain, and even if there were Titans nearby, they were just as blind as the four of them were at close proximity, on account of the fog.

Though, that being the case, encountering them without any prior realization might only spill doom, as such was the case with Flagon, Sayram, and Levi's two companions. A horrible end for all of them; one that she mustn't allow.

"Their footprints in the soil." Her eyes snapped to Levi. He was looking at her, expression unreadable. "That was how I knew..."

Narrowing her eyes to match his own, she gave a small nod toward the ground, "There won't always be footprints."

"I know," he replied, turning back around, "Which is why when I hear so much as one retarded grunt from any direction and it isn't human, I'll kill it."

"Except I'd have to go with you, and in this fog, we may lose sight of Squad Leader Erwin and Mike. I can't allow that to happen."

"I suspect that you wouldn't... Sometimes, it'll happen whether you want it to or not." It seemed as if he were speaking to her, but she knew it was only to reassure himself of something. Of some notion on his part. "The outcome is never clear, no matter which path you choose. Neither decision is ever the right choice..."

She let him continue, getting out all that he wanted to say before offering a response. Once he had finished, she began, "The reason people die is because of their own actions and of those around them. If their actions are sound, and those around them secure, then their chance of survival is all the more heightened. If their actions are foolhardy, and those around them foolish, they may not live as long, but maybe... they're the ones who know how to live life to the fullest with the time that they do have..."

"So the decision doesn't matter, in the end..."

She looked him in the eye when he glanced back, "It's up to the individual as to how they want to go out. Whether that be kicking and screaming, or groveling on their knees."

"The outcome is up to them." Levi sighed and went back to staring at Mike's backside once again, "Is that really... all there is to it...?"

Ines gazed into the fog all around them, wondering why she'd responded to the man in the first place. Perhaps it was because she felt a bit of sympathy, for regardless of how she felt about him, he'd still lost the two most closest to him. Though, she summarized, this one time would be the first and last she'd ever feel any sense of sympathy for the man. As, after all, while he may be what the Squad Leader had gambled on, she wasn't willing to take in the earnings with welcoming arms.

* * *

><p><strong>A  N:** Each story will feature a song choice and share an approx. word length of 10,000-20,000. This story will focus on things such as Levi's rise within the ranks of the Scouting Legion, Hange's first thoughts of Titans being worth studying, Erwin's polishing of the Long Distance Enemy Scouting Formation, the average day and life-span of the members of the Scouting Legion, and, since it's an extension of the main story, my original characters, among other things.

The song choice for this story is Endless by Under the Flood.


End file.
